Millennials Drive Alcoholic Beverages Trends

It may not be surprise for marketers in the alcoholic beverage industry that Millennial Generation is the most influential alcoholic consumer recently. Millennial Generation often represents people whose birth dates are from late 70s to late 90s. According to an article I recently read, this group makes up 20% of the US population and 72% of this demographic drinks alcoholic beverages.

This article identified the importance of Millennial Generation to alcoholic beverage industry and suggested that social media should be the “critical marketing tools” for brands to target Millennials.

Combining with the reading and my personal perspectives, I provide three recommendations for marketers in alcoholic industry who want to target the Millennial Generation more effectively.

Photo source: nightclub&bar

Create Values

Price is the most important factor they consider when Millennials are making their purchase selections. However, the generation is more value-conscious than other groups as well. According to a research, more than one third of Millennials purchase products because of the brand values they have perceived.  These two results may be contradictory, however, they are not necessarily conflicting at some points. For marketers, these results show a fact that Millennials will scrutinize price carefully but the values of brands, which marketers have delivered for their prices, will definitely be took into consideration by Millennials as well. So the most important issue for marketers here is to create and deliver extra brand values to Millennials. By creating values that mean something to Millennials, marketers can not only charge premium price for product but also encourage Millennials to have commitment with brands.

Implement social media

There is no need to say that social media is one of the most important marketing tools for marketers to leverage in order to increase customer engagement and many other purposes. However, Millennials are more likely to interact with brands they like through social media than other demographics.  Millennial Generation has grown up with computer and many of them have used Internet as the primary news source nowadays.  They use social media a lot. It is really important for marketers in alcoholic industry to grasp this opportunity to connect with their Millennial customers through social media. Social media allow Millennials to be involved in everything from product design to marketing and marketers can easily foster conversation between brands and consumers. By leveraging social media, it will be more effective to increase customer’s engagement, build loyalty, and connect with Millennial customers.

Be fresh

Millennials like to receive or heard anything new immediately from their love brands. They want to be informed by their favorite brands instantly when any change has been made or any new product has been launched recently. Marketers should keep providing Millennials interesting information or small marketing tactics such as limited time offers to obtain their attention. By doing so, Millennial will be entertained and engaged and therefore brands can maintain positive relationship with them. 

Calvin Chang is a Master candidate at Northwestern University studying Integrated Marketing and Communications, and specializing in direct and interactive marketing, marketing analytics, and digital marketing. Calvin will be graduating in December 2012 and can be reached on his twitter handle at @CalvinChang1987 or on LinkedIn: http://lnkd.in/rDQtXB